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Jane Fonda, Tetsuya Komuro, Britney Spears

The last time Jane Fonda appeared on Broadway, John F. Kennedy was still in the White House and "Barbarella" was just a gleam in Roger Vadim's eye. This week it was announced that Fonda would return to Broadway, after a 46-year absence, in "33 Variations," a new play by Moisés Kaufman scheduled to open in this winter. Fonda, 70, is to star as a musicologist studying the work of Beethoven. She was last seen on Broadway in a 1963 revival of "Strange Interlude." This will also be the Broadway playwriting debut of Kaufman, who was nominated for a Tony award in 2004 for his direction of Doug Wright's "I Am My Own Wife."

The top-selling Japanese music producer Tetsuya Komuro was arrested in Osaka on fraud allegations this week, his company said, marking a stunning downfall for a songwriter whose tunes dominated the country's pop music scene in the 1990s. Avex Group Holdings provided no details of the case. But news media reports said Komuro, who is deeply in debt, allegedly defrauded an investor in 2006 of 500 million yen (about $4.2 million at the time) over sales of copyrights for 806 of his songs. Komuro, 49, sold a reported 170 million compact discs in the 1990s. He began his music career as a member of the popular rock band TM Network in 1984 and produced many songs that sold in the millions, including Namie Amuro's "Can You Celebrate?"

(AP)

The Foo Fighters were crowned band of the year at the Classic Rock awards in London, with Whitesnake picking up best album for Good To Be Bad. Ozzy Osbourne was given the living legend award by the ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash. The Kiss guitarist Paul Stanley was showman of the year while the Australian rockers Airborne were named best new band. The ceremony also celebrated the 10th anniversary of Classic Rock magazine.

(BBC)

Keanu Reeves has been cleared of any liability for injuries a paparazzo claimed he suffered when he was struck by the actor's car. A Los Angeles jury deliberated for about an hour in the civil lawsuit brought by the photographer Alison Silva against the "Matrix" star before clearing Reeves. Silva claimed he was knocked to the ground and injured his wrist in March 2007 when he was trying to take pictures of Reeves in his Porsche. Silva was seeking damages of about $640,800 for medical bills and past and future lost earnings.

Two surfers have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor battery charges for allegedly throwing a photographer into the water as he tried to shoot pictures of Matthew McConaughey on the waves. The surfers, Skylar Peak and Philip Hildebrand, are accused of confronting several paparazzi who showed up in June on a Malibu beach to take pictures and film the star, whose movies include "Fool's Gold," "Failure to Launch" and the upcoming "Surfer, Dude." A pretrial hearing was set for Jan. 14.

(AP)

In other paparazzi news, Britney Spears has turned the tables on celebrity photographers by posting videos mocking them on her Web site. Each week, the singer aims to post a clip of a photographer making a fool of him or herself, making them the winner of that week's "paparazzie" award. The latest video clip on the star's Web site shows a photographer falling over backwards as he tries to capture Spears on film. The caption underneath the clip reads: "This photographer eats some dirt while trying to get a shot of Britney."

A British jury investigating the death of a special-effects technician on "The Dark Knight" was told that he was killed in an accident during the shooting of a stunt, The Guardian reported. Conway Wickliffe, 41, was killed on Sept. 25, 2007, during the filming of a chase sequence for the blockbuster Batman movie directed by Christopher Nolan. This week the jurors at a coroners' court in England, were told that Wickliffe had been riding in the back seat of a four-wheel-drive pickup driving parallel to a stunt car; the vehicle carrying Wickliffe crashed into a tree when it missed a 90-degree turn. The jury will rule on an official cause of death. Wickliffe was honored in the closing credits of "The Dark Knight," along with the actor Heath Ledger, who died before the film's release.